These are just photos from our everyday life. One night the sun set as a beautiful red ball. When they talk about the red sun in China, it is literally a red sun. It is amazing and my photo taking ability does not do it justice.
The pictures of Elizabeth and Alex are along a path along the river that runs through Century Park. Just off of Fangdian Lu, the path starts and it is quiet, peaceful and right now you can smell the jasmine flowers. In fact today, Alex and I saw a beautiful humingbird buzzing around a jasmine tree in the little park.
Elizabeth took some of these pictures. She loves to take pictures.
Okay, I think there is a bad video attached to this. I did not approve that this be added, but if I remove it, Kirk will be offended. And I was sober!
After the Autoshow, Kirk wanted to take his team out to express his appreciation for their hard work. Unfortunately, Cindy didn't feel good so she left early. Hudson, Cici, Dr. Wang, Dr. Wang's sister in law, and Kirk and I had dinner and then went to KTV to do a little Karioke. That is a big thing here. You get your own little room and sound machine. Hudson and Cici love to sing. Hudson is really good too! Much better than me.
It was book week at school during the week before vacation. On Friday, they had to dress up as their favorite book character for a parade. The whole preschool and elementary school was there.
Elizabeth and I have been reading the Charlotte's Web chapter book so she decided to dress up as Fern. She wore a yellow dress just like Fern did in the movie for the fair. She brought her stuffed pig to be Wilbur and a big spider to be Charlotte. A lot of people first thought she was Little Miss Muffet, but then tney saw the pig and understood.
A lot of kids dressed up like princesses or spider man and bat man. I was really proud that she chose to be such a warm, loving character like Fern.
We celebrated Alex's 2nd birthday a couple times. He got to open up gifts from us and other family on the morning of his birthday. We even had a couple web cams.
That night, Elizabeth got to pick where we went for dinner. Her choice - Hooters. It just happened to be the night of the Miss China Hooters 2007 contest. So Alex got to get his picture taken with some of the finalists. Of course, Elizabeth passed out at dinner and missed most of the party.
A couple days later, Alex's friends George and Lin came over for a playgroup party.
Then when we were all home that night, we celebrated again with his cake and singing Happy Birthday. He likes singing the happy birthday song now.
It's hard to believe he is two already! Time flies.
Along with the autoshow came work visitors. Both Kirk and I hosted people from the States. We were able to meet up for a bit as a group one night.
The large group picture from left to right was: Rob Eckstein, Larry Denton, Cindy Zhou, Tim Glock, Hudson Yang, Sean McGuire, Dr. Wang, Kirk and I. In the next picture, it was Kirk, me and Matt Pohlman.
Kirk and Sean were so stressed out from the Autoshow, they had to get a foot massage.
On the weekend, I took Matt for a whirlwind tour of the popular tourist attractions in Shanghai. Then later that night, we met up with Clifford Kang and his wife Wendy Wu. We had dinner at a great Korean barbecue restaurant and finished the night at the piano bar in the Jin Mao tower.
The last few weeks have been kind of crazy. These pictures show the Auto Shanghai show. It was just as big and glamourous as the Detroit Auto show. The show was at the exhibition center just around the block behind our apartment.
Dura had a booth and Kirk was very busy involved with the preparation for the show. You can see the booth and some other pictures of cars that he saw.
You can also see how much traffic was in front of our apartment. It was awful, it took forever to get around that week. We were glad when it was over!
Would you believe that Bumpa and Gigi would fly to China? So many things to do and see.If we weren't sightseeing we were entertained by Alex and Elizabeth.
Alex loves to play with all his cars and trucks. Bumpa would ask him were the tractor and cars were and he would line them up ready to play.
Elizabeth likes doing puzzles and dolls. We went to Elizabeth's school and Gigi read them a book she composed about the farm. They enjoyed looking at Elizabeth and Alex pictures. The boys liked the picture of the homemade tractor plowing snow.Some have not seen that much snow. We went to Alex's school, the girls out numbered the boys. Before Easter went back to school for an Easter egg hunt and lunch with Elizabeth's class.
We went to the markets and could not beleve what goes on. A person can buy anything they want. They had their calculators out, ready to bargain. And don't touch it because they thought you were going to buy it. Marion said that was the biggest goodie barn he ever saw.
About the traffic and drivers. That is another story in itself. I think GiGi had a hole in the floor from braking so much. We managed to cross the streets without getting hit by the buses,cars,motorbikes and bikes. That was our first lesson.
Marion said the only safe place to be is on the 20th floor of their apartment and watch all the traffic. What a view they have. A person would not believe they lived in the city looking out the window. At night the buildings are lit up and a couple of nights we watched some fireworks.
We went to an Chinese Acrobat Show and they had 8 motorcycles in a cage. They went ever which way but loose, around and round, up and down. They sure do know to entertain. If you ever get a chance to see one of their shows it is a treat.
The gardens and the flower show were just beatiful. But I have to remind myself they have many people working on those. So if I choose to do a couple of new projects in my garden I'll be happy this year. The ideas are going to be time saving for me, like less weeding. Of course, Marion doesn't know what is in the planning for him to help out.
All in all we had a good time with the Roessler Family. Thank you again. Marion and Karen
We went to the Botanical Garden on Monday after Easter. When we first walked in, we thought it would only take 30 minutes to walk through the exhibition. Little did we know! This place is huge, a lot like Century Park. It had some amazing exhibits and we really enjoyed walking through. See some of the pictures I took of flowers that I thought were especially pretty.
That afternoon, we watched Elizabeth dance again with her friends. They have a recital coming up at the end of May or in June.
On Wednesday, I pulled Elizabeth out of school early and we went to People's Square to check out the Shanghai Urban Planning and Exhibition center. It was amazing. It has a model of the city of Shanghai! We saw our apartments, although they must have been planned to be on the opposite corner of Huamu Lu and Fangdian Lu.
We had such a great time with our visitors. Gigi will be doing a guest blog for me (hopefully) so that you can hear her perspective. I think they enjoyed themselves and they even got comfortable enough to take the Metro around by themselves!
We're thankful that they came and thankful that Kirk's Mom came in March. It will be busy for us until we come home in July, but it helped get us through!
Okay Pelton, that should've kept you busy for a while. Stop pestering me now! :)
We decorated Easter Eggs. Elizabeth had a lot of fun doing this with the Princess Easter Egg kit that Grammy had brought. You can see the beautiful eggs with GiGi and Elizabeth.
On Easter Sunday, we went to our church, Sacred Heart in Pudong. It was pretty crowded, but we got there early and got a good seat. We ended up seeing Elizabeth's friend Sophie and her family and they sat next to us. Alex went into the nursery and loved it.
After church, we went to Elizabeth's friend Oia's birthday party. I forgot to take my camera, but she had a blast.
Then we got to do the Easter Egg hunt. Alex just liked finding the eggs, shaking them, and opening them when the shaking sounded liked Jelly Beans. He thinks they are "nummy". We had so much fun and were so thankful to have family celebrate Easter with us as it wouldn't have been the same.
The last thing we did that day was take Alex to Farhana to get his hair cut. He was a little better this time. We really chopped it off and with it we chopped off all of his sweetness. He is a full blown terrible 2 year old!! We'll take more pictures of him but he really looks like a little boy now, not a baby, and he looks just like Kirk.
On Saturday before Easter, we went took the Metro (subway) to Xintiandi. This is an area of Shanghai in Puxi that was occupied by the Europeans and then once they were kicked out, it was the site for the first Communist party meeting. Now it is an upscale shopping and restaurant area. We ate at Latina which is a Brazillian steakhouse. The food was very good.
Then we walked to Nanjing Lu. This is a pedestrian street in Shanghai that has always (since the 1800's) been a shopping area. It is now lit up with many neon lights and is a site to see. We stopped at a Pearl market and Gigi was able to spend some money that had been burning a hole in her pocket.
Gigi and Bumpa found the Metro so easy to use, the next week, they mastered taking it on their own to many places.
These are funny pictures, I'm just getting a look at them for the first time. So Kirk and Alex took Bumpa to the Science and Technology Museum and Gigi, Elizabeth and I went to her friend's, Crystal Tan, birthday party. Apparently Bumpa and Alex were a big hit with the local Chinese students! They all wanted their picture's taken with the Laowai (foreigner).
The party was a lot of fun and Crystal's parents, Dave and Peline, did a great job organizing it. It was at their apartment's clubhouse and their were 28 kids. On top of that, there were parents and Ayi's too! Elizabeth had fun and you can see the picture of her and her buddy, Jacob B. I think they have a crush on each other. Jacob is a very rambunctous but smart 4 year old. He draws pictures all the time for Elizabeth and she brings them home in her lunchbox.
The Monday after we returned from Beijing, we just did a little local sightseeing. Bumpa had read in the newspaper that Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) had his yacht in town. Liu drove us down to check it out. Well as you can see in the pictures, it was pretty huge! It has a crew of 60 people, a helicopter, and a submarine!
Another day we went to the Oriental Pearl Tower and looked out at the sights. We saw the progress of the new financial tower vs the Jin Mao tower. We went to the Bund on the Pudong side and had dinner at Paulaner.
Finally we ended up at home with both kids on Gigi's lap for some stories.
On the Friday after they arrived, we made them get right back on a plane to Beijing. We spent the weekend touring China's capital. It really is an amazing city that is under a lot of change and construction getting ready for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
We took the Maglev to the airport and then arrived in Beijing on Friday night. We stayed at the Sheraton and in front of the hotel was the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe. We ate dinner there that night. It was very loud, but Elizabeth was so tired, she still was able to pass out at dinner.
We hired a private tour guide and driver. The tour guide's name was Rita and she lives in Beijing. She grew up in Harbin which is a northern China province. She did an excellent job showing us the city.
The first place we saw on Saturday morning was Tiannamen Square. It is the largest city center in the world. Here was saw the countdown clock to the Olympics, the place where Mao's tomb is (closed for refurbishment) and the picture of Mao on the entrance to the Forbidden City. You can see from the pictures that is was chilly and windy.
We couldn't believe how big the Forbidden City was. This was the place that the Chinese Emperors lived. It's easy to understand why the Boxer Rebellion happened since these people lived so large while there were so many peasants with nothing on the outside.
After the Forbidden City, we went to lunch at a traditional Chinese restaurant in the area where the Heaven's Temple is. After lunch we went up to the Heaven's Temple. Twice per year, the emperors would come here to pray to the gods for a good harvest.
On the way out of the Heaven's Temple we witnessed daily Chinese life. Singing, playing cards, dancing, kites....It wiped Alex out.
Before we returned to the hotel, we stopped at a silk factory and store. We saw the silkworm lifecycle and how they extract silk thread from their cocoons.
Our day ended with a swim in the pool and dinner at the hotel. Again, Elizabeth passed out at dinner!
The next day we went on a Hutong tour. Our guide's name was Seven. The Hutong houses were traditional Chinese houses with many rooms surrounding a central courtyard and many family members would live together. We rode in traditional bicycle drawn rickshaws throught the neighborhood. The alleys were no bigger than 2 bicycle widths since that is how most people traveled. At one time there were 6000 Hutong neighborhoods in Beijing. Now with modernization and construction there are only 2000. The one we went to is now protected by the government.
We had lunch in a family's home. Elizabeth ate with Rita, Seven, and the home's cook in the kitchen while we ate in the family room. The food was very good and there was a lot! Gigi even mastered using chopsticks to pick up peanuts.
On our way in the car to the Great Wall, we drove by the Olympic Stadium and the Swimming pool under construction.
It took us about an hour to get to the location where we were going to go up to the Great Wall. Once we arrived, we had to take a cable car up to the top of the wall. What an amazing place. It truly is a wonder how this could have been built and how massive it is. It was pretty windy on top of the wall and pretty steep in some cases. The view was outstanding. While we were on top, a snow squall came through! For some reason, Elizabeth had it in her head that we were going to walk the whole great wall and she was upset when we told her it was time to go. We had to explain how many days it would take to walk 6000 kilometers!
We weren't that impressed by the city life in Beijing, definitely not as cool as Shanghai, but the historical sites and landmarks were truly amazing! Definitely a great trip.
We had our next batch of visits arrive on March 28th. Bumpa and Gigi made the trek from Fountain MI. They made it through the flight, that is the toughest part. I picked them up from the airport and then the next day we spent time exploring our neighborhood. Elizabeth didn't have school so we all went to Century Park. We rented one of the bikes and had a ball peddling around the park. Going up hills was tough and we got to laughing pretty hard when we barely made it up one of them!
There are also pictures of the kids going for bike rides and going to the little park.
We had a busy weekend on this weekend. On Saturday morning, Elizabeth and I went and met up with one of my friends from Delphi in the US, Dan Renick. They brought him back to the apartment to check out the view and to meet Alex. Dan was kind enough to bring some goodies for Elizabeth and Alex. A lot of chocolate and peanut butter candy! You can't buy Reese's in China and if you could, it still probably wouldn't taste the same.
In the afternoon, the kids were playing in the hall outside of our apartment. Elizabeth was playing with Disney princess book that Aunt Cole sent over. Thanks Aunt Cole!
Then on Saturday night, we had the Concordia Charity Auction. It was held at the Shangri-La. We sat at a table with Rob and Stacy Eckstein. It was a lot of fun and there were so many people we met. After the auction was done, we went upstairs to the Jade on 36 bar and danced. Since the auction was open bar (meaning bottomless wine glasses), I had a little too much fun! The lady in the blue dress dancing with me is Stacy.
The other picture with me is with two girls that were traveling with Dan. Julie and Connie ended up coming to meet up with us since Connie also had a friend that was at the auction.
We celebrated Kirk's birthday with an ice cream birthday cake from Haagen Daaz that Elizabeth picked out. He turned the big 37! One of Kirk's colleagues from Dura in the States was in town, so Dave, Kirk and I went out to dinner at the Jin Mao tower. Good celebration.
Elizabeth and Alex wanted to go home with Grammy's in her suitcase
This is my last day of a 19-day visit with Kirk, Kath, Lizzy and Alex. I am sad to leave China, but I have so many wonderful memories of my visit here. We were on the go everyday! I got to see Puxi, the Bund, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Yuyuan Gardens, the French Concession, Xintiandi, Century Park, and Pearl and Jin Mao Towers. We took a day trip to Suzhou, where we saw ancient Chinese gardens, towers, and pagodas. Very beautiful! Kirk, Elizabeth and I spent an evening at the ERA, Chinese acrobatic performance at the Shanghai Centre Theatre, which I highly recommend. It was amazing! I was here to help Elizabeth celebrate her 4th birthday. We had three celebrations: one at school with her classmates, where Kath and I spent the morning, did a shell-painting craft, and provided birthday treats for the children; next we had a small celebration at home that evening, sharing cupcakes with DeDe (Alex) who liked them very much; and lastly on Saturday, with a full-fledged Princess Tea Party for 12 dancing princesses, their moms and ayis (nannies). It was very special. I also got to go to ballet class and spend a day helping in Elizabeth's class. This was very special! She is so happy here, and has many friends. I also took Alex to his Chinese preschool one afternoon, and enjoyed that a lot, although I didn't understand a word of it! You don't need to know the words to communicate with babies and teachers! Kirk and Kath's apartment is very nice and spacious. The most impressive thing is the view. I don't think you could find a better one in Shanghai. I love the Pudong side of town. It is mostly modern and fairly easy to get around in. The Puxi side is the opposite. It is noisy, crazy busy, and a constant traffic jam. The Bund is a very interesting contrast to all of the modern skyscrapers that are going up, one after another. Construction is everywhere. I do not know where they will be able to put all of the cars we Americans would like to help them acquire from us. Right now busses, taxis, private autos, motor scooters and bicycles all fight for the same road space. Traffic signals seem optional. Underground in the Metro are many little shops selling the fake designer bags, watches, etc. It was fun learning to barter with Kirk! We ate at some amazing restaurants. Most of the places in Green City, near their apartment, cater to Americans and other ex-pats, so the food was much like home. Others like the hotel buffets have a wonderful assortment of Chinese specialties. Lastly, I cannot express enought thanks to Soujou and Mr. Liu for taking such good care of me while I was here. XieXie! You all should consider a trip here. It is an amazing place, and the hospitality was incredible. Thanks Kirk and Kath!
After church this past Sunday, we went to brunch at the Novotel. The food was horrible but they had a play area for the kids!
Afterward, we took a walking tour around the French Concession. Again, in a couple weeks, flowers will be blooming and it will be pretty. We'll have to go back.
Kath searched and searched for shoes to wear to a black tie thing they have. Every salesperson laughed when she told them her size - 9.5 - 10US or 40-42 UK. Guess they don't sell those in China!! Good reason to shop this summer!
